Tag: Vinny Cerrato

It’s been 25 years since Commanders had a GM with power

Washington will have a real GM for the first time since Charley Casserly.

The Commanders have not had a legitimate general manager since Charley Casserly.

Casserly was the Assistant General Manager serving under Bobby Beathard in the 1980s as Washington won two Super Bowls. When Beathard departed, Casserly was promoted to General Manager, and two seasons later, Washington won its third Super Bowl with Coach Joe Gibbs.

However, when previous owner Dan Snyder took the reigns in 1999, Casserly shocked us all, suddenly resigning just prior to the 1999 training camp. It should have raised flags for all of us.

Since that time, Snyder and Vinny Cerrato ran the team, making personnel decisions, and they beget Bruce Allen and then Ron Rivera.

These are times for Washington fans to raise their hopes, believing this owner, Josh Harris, is going to hire a new general manager who will rebuild this roster, draft well in the draft, and spend wisely in free agency.

Yes, whoever is chosen will make poor draft choices and sign unproductive free agents. They are human; they will err.

Yet, shouldn’t there be an encouraged fan base, knowing there have been so many years the once proud franchise has been without good leadership at the top of its football operations?

Ron Rivera was a nice guy, a good guy. He is not to be trashed. He is not to be slandered. Yet, he was ineffective, not producing a winning season in his four seasons. The franchise does need a major overhaul on the football side of the building.

Merely thinking this organization may include not only a coach who thinks what is best for “this” season but will also possess a GM who is thinking, “What is best for the next four years?”

Now that is a refreshing thought, to think this franchise will once again have leadership capable of rebuilding this roster.

Hey, the first hire could occur within the week!

Another time the Commanders owner intruded into the NFL draft

Vinny Cerrato checks in with his draft stories involving Dan Snyder.

Grant and Danny hosted former Washington player personnel director Vinny Cerrato last Friday.

Cerrato told a story of how Washington owner Daniel Snyder again intruded into the draft, demanding Cerrato to draft a certain player.

The setting was the 2008 NFL draft. Joe Gibbs had retired following the 2007 season playoff loss at Seattle. Snyder for some very bizarre reason, hired Jim Zorn to be the offensive coordinator before there was a head coach. This meant the new head coach would not even be permitted to hire his own offensive coordinator.

Consequently, Snyder had extreme difficulty finding anyone to take the head coaching job. So, embarrassingly, Snyder then made Zorn the head coach, though he had yet to be a coordinator in the NFL.

When the 2008 draft came, Cerrato traded out of the first round, giving the Redskins three second-round selections. At No. 34, he took Michigan State wide receiver, Devin Thomas.

Snyder then inquired to Cerrato whom he was going to select. Washington held the No. 48 and 51 selections. Cerrato told Grant and Danny that on that day he conveyed to Snyder he was wanting to draft Jamaal Charles a running back out of Texas.

However, Snyder, according to Cerrato, wanted receivers for Jim Zorn’s offense, voiced for Cerrato to take Oklahoma wide receiver Malcolm Kelly. Cerrato says he disagreed and again said he wanted to take Charles.

What was missing in Cerrato’s version of the story is that Washington actually had another selection where Cerrato took USC tight end Fred Davis at No. 48.

Once again Cerrato said Snyder insisted the No. 51 selection be Kelly. So Cerrato surrendered and chose Kelly. Wouldn’t you know it? Kelly was already battling a knee issue, only caught 28 passes for his brief career, and never caught a touchdown pass.

Charles on the other hand was chosen by the Chiefs in the third round at the No. 73 selection. He provided the Chiefs 9 NFL seasons rushing for 7,260 yards, 43 rushing touchdowns averaging a HUGE 5.5 yards per carry.

But hey, Cerrato knows he is not clear from blame for the poor 2008 Washington draft. Thomas only caught 3 touchdown passes and 43 receptions overall in his unspectacular career. Davis had two good seasons (2009, 2011) before his career went south. He caught 162 passes, 13 for touchdowns.

Thomas had been chosen at No. 34 while Jordy Nelson (36th) and Matt Forte (44th) would have both been much better additions to the Washington offense.

Even more frustrating, DeSean Jackson was taken by the Eagles at 49, and Calais Campbell by the Cardinals the very next two picks after Cerrato took Davis at 48.

Oh well, this is the legacy of Daniel Snyder, the people he hired, and how he intruded into football matters.

Searching for the logic in Bruce Allen’s continued employment with the Redskins

All signs point towards an expected dismissal of team president Bruce Allen, but Daniel Snyder has refused to pull the trigger as of yet.

Many fans of the Washington Redskins are probably scrolling through their newsfeed today and reading about the Jacksonville Jaguars’ firing of Tom Coughlin — the team’s top executive — with envy, and a hint of resentment.

It’s THAT easy to rid of a front office decision-maker? All you have to do is recognize that the team didn’t improve under his watch and has failed to build a solid foundation for the future, and then you can just fire him? Why haven’t we done that?

Why is Bruce Allen still employed by the Redskins?!

The answer is unclear. After 10 years in Washington, with a 62-98-1 regular-season record, Bruce Allen is still the Team President of the Redskins. Why has owner Daniel Snyder not moved on from him yet? The team is in disarray, the fanbase is dwindling, ticket-sales are plummeting, and a new head coach needs to be hired this offseason — one who is unlikely to take the job should Allen remain, unless they are desperate to get back into the coaching game. What’s the rationale there?

This may seem like an abundance of questions right off the top, but when you don’t have any answers, all you can do is keep asking questions until something starts to make sense. So far, we’re still searching for the logic in all of this.

In 2009, Snyder fired front office leader Vinny Cerrato, who had failed to right the ship in Washington and had caused multitudes of unrest in the fan base. Sound familiar? With just a couple of weeks left in the regular season, Allen was dubbed the savior of the Redskins, and the fanbase rejoiced. Many were optimistic at the prospect of a new general manager coming in and repairing the locker room while focussing on the roster talent in a much-needed way.

Deja Vu? If I were to take the last paragraph and make slight edits to the date and the name, it could easily be pasted into an article that might come out in a few weeks, should Snyder decide to give Allen the ax. Look at this quote that The Athletic‘s Ben Standig dug up from SB Nation on the day that Cerrato was fired, and tell me it doesn’t sound familiar.

“Redskins fans across the country are waking up to the greatest news they could’ve possible (sic) heard about their disappointing team: VP Vinny Cerrato, the man in charge of making the horrid personnel decisions for the franchise, has resigned. For many Skins fans… the dismissal of Cerrato was the only good that could’ve come from this season. Now that it’s really happening, it makes the 3-win year feel like a winning season.”

This isn’t a new spot for the Washington Redskins to be in, they’ve had to make this type of decision before. But for some reason, this time around, Snyder seems reluctant to pull the trigger, and both Allen and the fanbase as a whole are waiting with bated breath.

Will it happen before the regular season ends, or the 2020 season begins? Who knows, we don’t have the answers; we’re still searching for the logic in all of this, and coming up short.

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